The present disclosure relates to a pipe splice and to a sleeve and a method of using the sleeve to splice two pipe sections together.
Pipes, such as irrigation pipes, may be cut into pipe sections when setting up an irrigation system in a field. These sections may be spliced together at the end of their use in the field to form a continuous pipe that may be reused.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,090,233, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method of joining two hose segments by placing a first inner segment within a second outer segment to create an overlapping area and then applying heat and compressive force upon the overlapping area to fuse the two segments together. A flat heat shield which is positioned within the overlapping area prevents the inner circumferential surface on the inner segment from adhering to itself during heat fusion.
During use, pipes normally accumulate dirt and sediment on their outer and inner surfaces. These surfaces should be cleaned in the vicinity of the overlapping area for the two segments to bond successfully.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,718,698, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes an apparatus for forming a butt joint between two pipe sections which comprises a pair of sleeves made of material which melts and fuses at the same temperature as the pipe sections. To make the butt joint, each sleeve is first inserted into an end of a pipe section and then the two pipe sections are axially aligned to bring their sleeves into abutting engagement with each other. Applying heat upon the vicinity of the sleeves causes the abutting faces of the sleeves to become fused together, and each sleeve to be fused to its respective pipe section.
If the sleeve and pipe have slightly different melting temperatures, the sleeve might not fully fuse with the pipe resulting in a weaker but joint. This may be overcome if the pipe sections would directly fuse to each other.